A New Chance
by okyna2996
Summary: Sequel to Trust. Seven years after the Witcher' case, JJ and Emily ran into each other again. Worse, they have to work together. Will the love they once shared resurface? Or not? R&R :P Rating may change later
1. Chapter 1

AN/ Hi guys, since a few of you asked for a sequel to Trust, here it is :P It will be a multi-chap, but I'm not sure how long. Hope you like it !

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Behavioral Analysis Unit.

The BAU.

Best unit of the FBI.

She finally made it. Ever since some psycho threatened her, almost seven years ago, and the BAU had saved her, and other women, joining the unit had been her goal. They arrested Witcher and protected her, all that in a matter of a few days.

JJ was standing just outside the double glass door, in the elevator lobby. She took a deep breath, raised her hand, and opened the door. She had already met with the Section Chief and Unit Chief for her interview. Of course, she knew Agent Hotchner from before, he was one of those who went to Pennsylvania in the first place. But she had never had the pleasure of meeting Erin Strauss. That woman was going to be a hard job getting around when they'd disagree on something or another. Which would probably happen a lot since she was the new team liaison.

She walked directly towards Hotch's office and knocked on the door. It was the only office she had seen this morning that had the light on. It was still pretty early, only 7.30a.m., and it was Monday, so she wasn't all that surprised to see the bullpen empty, and she didn't see a lot of Agents in the corridors.

When the deep "come in" was heard through the door, she walked inside, going to stand in front of her new Unit Chief desk.

"Agent Jareau. Good morning." From all the case files opened on his desk, JJ could tell he was here since a little while already. She also noticed his wedding ring and wondered why he was working instead of being with his family. But then she remembered he was her new boss, and that his private life was just that, private.

"Good morning sir."

"Since you are already familiar with protocols and procedures, I'll just show you your new office, and we'll do the first cases together, so you know what to look for." Jennifer Jareau had been the media liaison for the field office in Philadelphia for the last two years, and before that she was posted in the middle of nowhere, Montana.

"Yes sir." She followed him out of his office and into the bullpen.

"And, please don't call me sir. You're a team member now, it's Hotch."

"Yes sir, um Hotch. Speaking of the team, when do they come in?" JJ wondered out loud.

"Usually, when we don't have a case, not before 8.30, except Dr. Reid, maybe. Otherwise, we're on call 24/7, so if a case comes in a Saturday night, for example, they'd all be there. Whatever they were doing, and whoever they were with." Hotch showed JJ her office, the different important places on the floor, such as the coffee machine in the break room, where to find everything necessary to re-make coffee, the conference room, and everyone's desk. Then they went back to his office to start reviewing cases.

They were at it for a couple of hours when someone nocked on the door. Agent Hotchner didn't even have the time to answer before an older agent came in.

"Hey, Aaron. Oh, sorry, didn't know you were busy." The Agent said with a smile to the two people inside.

"Dave, this is Agent Jennifer Jareau, the new team communication liaison. Agent Jareau, meet Agent Rossi." Hotch introduced them. After they politely shook hands, Hotch talked again, "Is there anything you need?" He raised his brows at Rossi.

Rossi seemed to be thinking for a few seconds before nodding his head. "Actually, I was wondering whether we were going to Oregon."

"I don't know, they haven't called back yet, which means there is no other bodies, but based on his previous kills the unsub won't stop. We'll wait 24 hours for a call from the lead detective, either way, we'll leave tomorrow at the latest."

JJ had followed the exchange between the two men without understanding a thing, so she decided to ask what was going on. "What's happening in Oregon?"

"A unsub has been killing young men in their twenties for the last couple of weeks." Hotch searched his desk for something and handed her another case file. "Here's what they sent us. You should probably take a good look at it. You'll be the one presenting the case to the team later."

And indeed, the police chief called Hotch not ten minutes after Rossi had entered his office. Another five minutes after that, the whole team was gathered in the conference room, except for Hotch and JJ. Naturally, they were talking about the new agent joining them.

"Do you think it's a woman? I would LOVE a new chick" Morgan said, grinning, just before Garcia gently slapped his shoulder, "What?"

"Try and be a little more delicate. No seriously, it would be nice to have another girl with us. Emily and I need some back up."

"What are you smiling about there, Rossi? What do you know?" Emily asked, when she noticed him smiling mischievously.

"I would love to share with you guys, but I'm sorry, I am sworn to secrecy." It wasn't true, but watching them overthinking it was way too fun to stop it.

Morgan was about to add something when the two missing agents came in. The team members all turned around to assess the new liaison and two and a half mouth fell. Rossi had already met JJ so he wasn't surprised to see her. Garcia had never seen her in person, so she didn't recognize her. But the other three remaining agents replaced her in one tiny second.

"Jareau, right? What the hell are you doing here?" Morgan asked, getting up to shake her hand.

"Uh, I'm the new media liaison for the BAU." She answered him, somewhat on autopilot. Morgan didn't have to be a profiler to notice that she wasn't focused on him. At all. No, her eyes were glued to Emily's and memories were flashing through her mind. She was in a totally different place and time.

_Flashback_

Emily had called her earlier this day. She told her her team was finally on stand-down for two weeks. Since it was summer break, JJ answered that she would come down to D.C. It was the first time the two were going to spend more than just a week-end together.

When JJ arrived at Emily's condo, it was already 5p.m. She parked her car, got in the elevator and stopped right outside the door. She had come here once before, but unfortunately, Emily had been called back not long after she got there. But this time was different. This time, she planed on using all the time she got from Emily's break.

She knocked on the door and waited. The door wasn't even fully opened, she was already inside, her bag thrown on the kitchen counter, her hands around the neck of the brunette who lived there and their lips locked. She closed the door with her foot and pressed Emily against it. When they broke for air, Emily rested her forehead against JJ's.

"Hey."

"Hey. It's been so long." JJ looked up into brown eyes, "I missed you."

"Yeah, I can see that." Emily smiled at the blonde. "I missed you too. Come here." She moved them to her couch and they started making out like teenagers.

They spent the two weeks together, hardly ever leaving the other. On their last day together, they said for the first time the three magic words 'I love you'.

_End__Flashback_

"Agent Blondie? You all right?" Garcia asked – she hadn't goten her name yet, and she thought Blondie suited her well – when Jennifer didn't speak once Hotch finished introducing her. She waved her hand in front of JJ's eyes.

"Uh, yeah, sorry. I just zoned out. Sorry." She repeated. She mentally shook her head to clear the fog that had settled when she saw her former lover. The distance, the cases, her studies, and her being posted to the other end of the country had been a lot and the two kind of lost contact a couple of years ago. Hotch had told Rossi, and Garcia about the first time they meet JJ. All the while, JJ focused all her attention on anything other than Emily. Once Hotch was done, she presented the case, careful to stay focus on that and not on the profilers, who she was sure were profiling her and Emily. She had known Hotch was still on the team since a little before her interview, but she had assumed that the other team members would have changed unit after all this time. She wasn't prepared to face her past, at least not yet.

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AN2/ A review would make my day :p And please tell me what you'd like to see happening in this story, as I'm not sure where I'm going with it


	2. Chapter 2

AN/ Sorry it's been so long but school started again and I have so many things to do. Updates may be slow, but I promise I'll try to be as fast as I can.

Thanks to all of you who read this story and special thanks to those who reviewed followed or favorited this story, it means a lot to me.

Hope you'll like it, tell me what you think :P

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Emily felt like she had seen a ghost. She hadn't seen Jennifer in over 3 years, but she still thought about her, about their time together. Clearly, the blonde was also surprised to see her. During the briefing, they both tried not look at the other. It worked pretty well, until the team left the room and Garcia grabbed JJ by the arm and led her to her lair, and Morgan took Emily for the ride to the airport. JJ wasn't going with them on her first case, so Garcia would have all the time she wanted to question her. And by the looks of it, Morgan would do the same with her. The thing was, she didn't really want to talk about it. Their three and plus years together were one of the best things that happened to her, and seeing her today in the conference room just reminded her of what she once had. She couldn't believe that JJ had once again walked into her life. It was mostly their schedule that had them parted ways, but now that they were going to work together, Emily caught herself hopping for a new chance with the blonde.

* * *

Garcia was blissfully hacking into some database concerning the team' case when someone knocked on the door. It felt weird – new – to her. The only people who ever came to her lair were her coworkers in the BAU, and they never knocked. Nonetheless, she answered with her usual happy comments.

"Come in, mere mortal who seek my knowledge. Office of Me, how can I help?"

She kept her eyes on her multiple screens to finish whatever she did when she was working, and finally turned her chair to face her visitor.

Cofindently marching into the tech's office, JJ stopped when she noticed Garcia's piercing eyes searching her.

"Uh, hi. I was wondering if there was anything new. Chief Strauss has asked me to update her regularly on the case." She offered as an explanation.

"Not much but it's still early."

"Ok, thanks."

When JJ turned to leave, Garcia saw her best opportunity to discover the not-so-secret past between the two other ladies in the BAU. "Not so fast there, Jareau, rigth?"

"Just JJ is fine." The media liaison had a small idea, well she was pretty sure actually, of what the other blonde was going to ask her. And indeed, she was not disappointed.

"So I couldn't help but notice some interesting looks, whether not-looks, between you and our dear Emily Prentiss." _Oh, so she was trying to be a little subtle._ "Is there a good story behind?" _Maybe not._ Garcia was so eager to find something out, she was almost bouncing in her chair.

JJ took a second to carefully choose her next words. "I wouldn't exactly say that. But I'd rather leave the past in the past, if you don't mind." By the way the tech girl was looking at her, she knew she needed to leave as quickly as possible if she didn't want her past with Emily to be out, in the office' gossip.

She cowardly faked an incomming text on her phone, "Sorry I gotta go." She escaped to her own office and buried herself into work, trying but failing not to think about the brunette who was currently across the country.

The case in Oregon kept them all busy for four long days, during which Emily and JJ could avoid answering anything about their past without being completely awkward with their team members. When the team got back to the office to finish up the paperwork, Garcia was waiting for them to welcome them back. She had tried to get JJ to come with her but the new agent was pretty stubborn about having some urgency paperwork and wouldn't change her mind. Although, Garcia did manage to get her to agree to come to the bar that night, to celebrate she had said. Now, all the tech had to do was to get Emily to come too and she should be able to get the two of them to talk to each other, or at least to one of them, about their story. It was unnerving to her, not to know what happened.

So when the brunette first said no, she insisted and got Derek to help in convincing her. By the end of the day, everyone, including Hotch, were ready to hit the bars. Garcia personally, with the help of Morgan who she had let in in her plot, had chose a quiet place where you could talk without yelling. If she wanted them to talk, best they were in a propice place. So, by 8.30, the whole team was gathered around a table with their drinks. They talked about a lot of things, but they almost never mentioned work. Except when they asked JJ what she did before being the media liaison for the BAU. She kept her answers short, she didn't go into any details. What she said must have been enough for them because they stopped grilling her about her life. Morgan was the first to leave the table to go dancing with what looked like three, maybe four, women at the same time. Next were Hotch and Rossi who went to get another drink and they stayed at the bar, both knowing that the team was trying to get JJ and Emily to talk. They weren't really subtle about it. Then Garcia dragged Reid away and asked him something which involved statistics, just to keep him busy, as to not interfere with what she had in mind. She went to get the both of them another drink, and ran into someone she knew. Sam, as was his name, was very talkative. They chatted for a few minutes before Garcia caught something in the corner of her eye. She turned her head to get a better look, and what she saw had her jumping over to Morgan, completely forgetting about Sam.

She rushed to him and once she was there, she dragged him over to Reid.

"Please, tell me either of you has a good hearing?" She half-begged them. She needed to know what happened between JJ and Emily. Her fellow blonde had drove her crazy with her 'almost-answer', or 'gotta go', or …

"Doll face, focus! Why?" Garcia was brought back to reality by Derek, and Reid who was staring at her somewhat looking afraid.

"They're talking!" She vaguely pointed towards the couple. "And I don't wanna interrupt them, or spy on them, or anything... But, come on, I just want to know _something_." She had her eyes locked on the BAU ladies, trying to guess what they were talking about.

Morgan, who was also very intrigued by his team mates's past, tried to come up with a solution to their current problem. His eyes lit up and he turned to Reid, who was now looking at the both of them as if they had lost their mind.

"Didn't you tell me one day that you can read lips?" Garcia turned towards the genius, a pleading look in her eyes.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, it's been a while but I guess I can. Why?" Reid asked, a bit confused.

"Perfect, get over here." Morgan dragged him to the best spot to see the face of both Emily and JJ. "Now, tell us what they're saying."

"What? But it may be personal."

"Well, I hope so. It's been almost five days since JJ joined us, and neither of them had said anything to any of us about their story. And I _hate_ it when I don't know what's going on." Garcia kindly but hurriedly explained. "Now, could you please translate for us?"

Reid wasn't really sure if he should do this, but he didn't want to upset Garcia, afraid of what she might do. So, he turned around, focused on the ladies, and started reading their converstaion, doing a live translation for his colleagues.


	3. Chapter 3

AN/ Hey everyone! First, thank you all for reading it, reviewing it, faviriting it, following it, ... Here's chapter 3, it's a little shorter, with a little more angst, tell me if you like it, and whether you want more of it. Reviews will make my day :P

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Emily was sitting in the booth, right in face of JJ. She was a bit unnerved, just as the blonde who was toying with her beer bottle. She knew she would have to talk to her at some point. She knew it, but it didn't mean she was eager to do so. She was afraid JJ would shut her down. Not that she didn't deserve it, she did, but she wanted to make amends. Ever since Emily saw her in the briefing room, less than a week ago, she had wanted to talk to her, to explain why she did what she did. She wanted to be with the blonde, maybe go back to what they were before _it_ happened, but at the same time she wanted to be as far away from her as possible. The case in Oregon had given her some time to think. Those few days were just what she needed, at the time. When the team came back from the case, she had come to terms with what she should do, and what she would actually do. But now that she had the opportunity to say something, she found herself on the verge of chickening out. She had to act now, or she never would. She took a much needed gulp of her drink and looked directly at the blonde in front of her.

On her side, JJ was much the same. She didn't know Emily was still working in the BAU, otherwise she would have come more prepared, mentally speaknig. In the two plus years since she had last seen the brunette, she had started to move on. She wanted to move on. After Witcher, Emily had quickly become her North Star. She told her everything, about herself, about her past and her family's tragedy, as she called it. Emily knew more about her than Charlie did. So, when they ended seeing each other, it broke her, wholely and person she trusted the most in the world, the one she truly loved, had left her. And it hurt. Even now, when she thought back about it, she still didn't understand how it could have happened. She htought she knew Emily as well as Emily knew her. Obviously, she was wrong. But she had had two years to forget about her. But of course, it couldn't be that simple. No, she had to run into her, again. Mercifully, she got a few days to put some walls up, despite Garcia's attempts at breaking them. In her heart, she knew that the only person who could get through them was the very person she was trying to protect herself from. And that scared her. It scared her because it meant that she still loved her like before, even given what happened. When everyone had left the table, leaving just the two of them alone, she knew Emily would try and talk to her. And she also knew that if she let her, she would break, once again. And she couldn't let that be the case. So, she focused on her beer bottle and on not looking at the brunette. Which is why she was startled when the eavy silence at the table was broken by a voice she could never forget, even she tried.

"So... How have you been?" Emily started tentatively. When she didn't get any kind of response from JJ, she tried again. "Jennifer?" This time, the blonde reacted, not really what Emily was hoping for though.

"Don't. Call me that." But that's all she got. JJ didn't look up, or move or anything. It was almost like she was making an effort not to. Like she wanted to distance herself from this situation, which she probably was.

"What do you mean? Look at me, please. Jennifer?" She asked once more.

"I told you. Don't. Call. Me. That." She still didn't look up, although this time, she did put her beer bottle on the table. She left her hands there, her fists closed, as if she was trying to keep herself under control.

"Why?" The brunette challenged. She wanted, no she needed, to talk to JJ, she needed to explain herself, but first she needed to know what was on JJ's mind, or at least part of it. She hadn't wanted to hurt her, back when they had broken up. She knew it would have had some effects on the blonde, but she had no idea she had taken it that bad.

"You know why." JJ's answer was short, bitter. She raised her head and looked directly into Emily's eyes. "You lost that right a long time ago." She kept her eyes up, daring her former lover to say her full name again.

_Well at least she's looking at me, which is a lot more than before, _Emily thought to herself.

"I'm sorry." It was time to try another method.

Obviously, it was _not_ what JJ wanted, "Do you even know what you're sorry for?" She didn't let Emily time to answer though. "As an afterthought, I don't wanna konw. Knowing you, you could make it worst." She averted her eyes and started to get up. She grabbed her coat, but was stopped by Emily.

"Where are you going?"

"Home." JJ stopped, but didn't turn back. "Not that it is any of your concern anymore." She headed towards Garcia, Morgan and Reid.

"Next time you want to know what's going on in a private conversation, try and be a little more discreet." She said hre goodbyes to Hotch and Rossi and left the bar, leaving a bunch of profilers and a technical analyst dumbstruck in her wake.

"Wow, she'll eat the press alive." Was all Morgan could say.

"We're so screwed. She's never gonna trust us now." Garcia wasn't reacted in the same way as Morgan. "And besides, it was barely useful. We didn't learn anything precised about them."

Reid was more about blaming his two coworkers, to save himself, "I'd like to reming you that it wasn't my idea. It is all on you two. I have nothing to do about what happened."

"What are we gonna do?" Garcia asked, looking back at the table where Emily still sat unmoving. "I'm sure they'd be so great together."

"oh, no, we are NOT interfering. YOU are not interfering." Morgan was quick to put a stop to her matchmaker' side.

"But we have to do something. Don't you see how miserable they look?" She pleaded. Her mind was set. She would try all she could to get them hppily back together.


	4. Chapter 4

AN/ Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay, but school is getting most of my time. Thanks to everyone of you who are reading this story.

a review will make my day :P

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The next few weeks went by incredibly slowly for the members of the BAU. The tension was so palpable than even Anderson never stayed longer than he absolutely needed to in the BAU' bullpen.

Garcia spent hours trying to come up with a way to reconcile Emily and JJ. And when she was not, it was because she was trying to get Morgan to join her cause. So far, she was succeeding in neither.

Reid, on his part, he was acting in a low profile manner. He wanted JJ's trust, but after the bar's events it was quite difficult. His relationship with Emily was still the same for an outsider, but they weren't geeking around as much as they used too. And he missed that. So he was trying to get Emily's friendship back to its full force.

Pretty quickly, Morgan developped a friendship with JJ which was more like a sibling relationship. However, this friendship was a major argument in Garcia's attempts at discovering the past. But Morgan hold his own and didn't ask JJ what she wasn't ready to share yet. Although, he knew it was just a matter of time before Garcia managed to trick him into helping her. Somehow she always did.

JJ was doing her job. Once she was at the FBI's building, she was as professional as one can be. She dealt with deseperate detectives, mourning families, asking reporters, and she never failed. She won respect from her coworkers and bosses, but she hardly ever went out with them at the end a case. She was doing her best to seperate her personnal life from her professional life.

Emily was much the same, except she didn't have an office to hide from prying profilers. She was closing herself from her friends, trying to keep her personnal feelings hidden away in one of her compartment box.

Witnessing their team, Hotch and Rossi knew they needed to do something, anything, to alliate the tension between their coworkers. The pair would often meet late at night, in Hotch's office, with a glass of Scotch to discuss what they could do. After a lot of talking, they finally came to the conclusion that there was only one way to help the team, and for that they had to go back to the source of the problem. Except, they were not entirelly sure about what had happened between JJ and Emily in the first place, so there was a possibility that their whole plan would turn back on them. Still, they had to act. They both agreed that, in order for their plan to work, they needed help from someone who knew how to interfere. And of course, only one person came to mind. So, on a low day at work, when everyone was focused on paperwork, Hotch and Rossi met just outside of their technical analyst' office. Knowing Garcia hated when someone came inside her lair without knocking, Hotch made their presence known. Garcia greeted them whith her usual comments, but looked a bit surprised to see her boss and the legendary profiler in her office. At the same time.

It was Rossi who started to introduce their current problem. "Penelope, we need your help."

"Sure, what do you want me to hack?" she turned back to her computers, ready to enter any database they needed her to.

"No, actually, it's more of a personal problem." Hotch explained, but acting as if he didn't hear her talking about hacking.

"Oh. How personal exactly?" She asked, takken aback by the 'personal' aspect o their request. Never in the time she had worked with the BAU Hotch had talked about personal problems while at work.

Rossi decided they needed a more direct approach. "We need to get Emily and JJ to talk to each other again. The tension between them is so thick, you could cut it with a knife."

"I know, but I can't come up with any ideas on how to do that." Garcia whined, not showing surprise at the fact that the two profilers came to ask her that.

"Well, that's where we came in."

"Why, you know how to do the impossible?" Garcia looked up at them, almost pleadingly.

"Well, as a matter of fact..."

The trio decided that in order for their plan to work perfectly, they needed to wait until they got the right opportunity. And a couple weeks latter, that opportunity pesented itself.

* * *

JJ walked towards Hotch's office, knocking on his door and told him there was a case that needed their immediate attention. She gave him the file and went to gather the team in the conference room. When Hotch read the case, he knew it was their best chance. He sent a quick text to both Garcia and Rossi and went to join his team in the breafing room.

Once he sat down, JJ started to introduce the case. "D.C. Needs our help. Local authorities found the bodies of 4 women burried in trash behind small restaurants. All of them were in their early thirties', blonde with blue eyes. They were stabbed in the stomach, then strangled."

"Well, he definitely has a type." Rossi stated.

"The unsub is devolving. The time between murders went from 10 days to only 3. He's probably going to strike again soon." Morgan added.

"He doesn't seem to show any remorse." Reid said, reading the full file.

"Since it's local, we're driving there. We'll leave in 20 minutes." Hotch said, getting up and going back to his office, where Rossi and Garcia joined him not long after.

"We need to act now. This case is perfect for what we need to do. And besides, I don't think we have much time before either one of them snapps." Hotch said, and they both agreed. The three co-conspirators left to gather their things and start phase one of their operation 'get-Emily-and-JJ-to-talk-again'.


	5. Chapter 5

AN/ I realised I made a mistake in the previous chapter. Nothing big, just at the end I said that the victims of their next case were brunette with green eyes, but for the story I need them to be blonde with blue eyes, as I'm sure you know why. I changed it, just wanted you to know.

Anyways, thanks again to all of you who had read, followed, favorited this story, and special thanks to those who reviewed (rmpcmfan, justine, HaleyAlex2013, Guest, ...) you really are the best :P

I'm really really sory for the wait, but here's chapter 5, hope you'll like it :D

* * *

The team got to the police station and started working on the profile right away. Before Hotch sent his agents to the different crime scenes and to interview the victims' families, he informed them that they would be staying at a hotel for the duration of the case. Just before he left, he added that they were only three rooms left so they had to share. Morgan was staying with Reid, Emily with JJ and Rossi with himself. He left the precinct with Dave before anyone had the time to argue.

In their diabolical plan, they had agreed that JJ and Emily needed to be together as often as possible, but not too often as it would probably make them wary of what they were doing. So, for the time being, they decided to keep things soft. If the investigation lasted longer than two days, which was very likely, then Hotch would assigne them together on something that required them to be just the two of them.

Sure, their plan wasn't anything original in any way, but they figured if it was so well used, then that was because it worked. And if it didn't, they would find something else. But they were confident it was going to work. It had to.

* * *

On their first night, Emily and JJ didn't exchange a single word. They both knew better. And the last thing they wanted was to start fight with the whole team who could hear them. In the morning, they briefly acknowledged each other with a quick 'Morning'. The team met again at the precinct at 8 and got back to work. Another day went by uneventfully, with no major breakthroughs in the case, and the BAU agents were getting frustrated, to say the least. That night, they didn't leave before 9 p.m., and once at the hotel, they kept their minds on the case. In each of the room, files and reports were scattered on the coffee table, or on the floor when there wasn't enough room.

The following morning, the only thing that kept them standing was cafeine... and cafeine. For the two female agents, that night was much like the previous one, and seeing no obvious progress between them, Hotch and Rossi shared a glance and decided it as time for phase two : 'We need info, let's ask them'. Rossi went to the morgue, a new body having been found, and he took Prentiss with him. Although the older profiler had absolutely no idea how he was going to get anything out of the brunette. Sure, he was an elite interrogator, but she was a pro at hiding her feelings, thanks to her upbringing with an ambassador. On the other hand, back at the police station, Hotch asked JJ to get with Garcia and find everything they could on their victims. He said that they needed to know where their lives had crossed, which was true, but it was also because he knew that Garcia was the more likely to find anything about their friend's past. The two blondes had bonded when JJ first joined the Unit. And everyone knew that Garcia could do miracle with people.

During lunch time, Hotch and Rossi got Garcia on the phone to gather their findings. Well there wasn't really much to gather, except maybe that Emily had done something wrong, which had hurt JJ, but neither one of the three knew were still discussing it when Morgan came looking for them, saying that Reid had something to show them about the case. When he found them, he eyed his colleagues suspiciously and made a mental note to ask Garcia what it was all about. He followed them inside the room the team had settled in and sat down beside Emily. While Reid was doing his 'Reid-talk', as he had labeled it, Morgan couldn't help but notice some looks between his team members. Hotch and Rossi were looking at each other, surely thinking about what they were talking about before Derek interrupted them, and Emily kept glancing at JJ, but she looked a bit anxious. However, JJ kept her glaze on Reid, doing her best to appear focus on the case and not on the looks she was receiving from Emily, mostly, and also from Morgan who was trying to figure out what the hell was going on between them all. He felt clueless and he hated it. The only thing that kept him somewhat focused was the fact that Reid appeared even more clueless than he was. The young genious didn't even know there was something tot be clueless about.

What the residence genius had discovered helped them a lot but still didn't tell them who their unsub was, and they had to stay at least another night.

Morgan had observed the team the rest of the day, and he kind of felt bad for JJ. He knew the blonde was tensed around Emily because of whatever happened between them, and seeing how the brunette seemed extra stressed, he could foresee a pretty tensed night ahead.

* * *

When they reached the hotel that night, JJ hurried inside her room, while Emily went for the hotel bar. Hotch and Rossi both grabbed a drink and headed off to their room, Reid was nowhere to be seen, probably in his room, going over the profile and doind some coloring on his map. Derek went to sit next to Emily, ordered himself a drink and waited for her to say what was bugging her. When she stayed silent, he decided some prodding was needed.

"So, you wanna tell me what happened today that made you all snappy?" He turned to look at her, waiting for an answer.

"Not really, no."

Well, at least she wasn't in denial. Derek didn't add anything for the next few minutes, knowing that if she was to talk, she would do it on her own. She didn't like having her hand forced, on anything. He ordered two more beers for them and sipped at his. After no more than five minutes, Emily broke the silence, needing to vent and someone to know how she was feeling, to support her, to help her through this.

"I saw her today." She blinked once and drank a gulp of her beer before continuing, "I saw her and there was nothing I could do. " She knew she wasn't making any sense to him, but at this stage, she didn't really care, she just needed to get it out. "I know she said it was over, that she had moved on, but I can't help feeling overprotective of her. And I know all of this is my fault, I know she has every right to hate me, but..." She stopped, searching for the right words.

"But you want to be there for her, as we all do. Everyone noticed her resemblance with the unsub's type, and we're all looking out for her a little bit more than usual. Considering what you two had, it's normal to feel that way. Don't worry about her, the whole team will protect her. And you should talk to her, explain yourslef maybe. I know for a fact that she wants to clear the air between the two of you, almost as much as Hotch, Rossi and Garcia do." He added with a wink.

"Yeah, they aren't very subtle, are they?"

"Not really. I saw them plotting together earlier today, and when I asked Garcia she told me everything."

"Your secret's safe with me." when he gave her a puzzled look, she elaborated, "If Garcia finds out you told me, she'll have your financials so messed up, you won't even remeber you own name."

"Oh, yeah, didn't think of that. If you don't tell her, I won't tell anyone about this conversation."

"Deal."

"Now, go talk to your girl!"

Emily got up from her stool and gave him a pointed look, "You do know she's not my girl? That we're not getting back together? I've ruined all my chances when I left her, and it's too late to fix it."

Derek paid for their drinks and he, too, got up, listening to his partner, "But I'm okay, I've made my peace with it, and I think, once things are a bit more settled between Jennifer and I, then I'll have to get back out there."

"Really?" When she nodded, he smiled his cocky smile and lifted the mood after their serious talk, "Well, it's about damn time I get my wingwoman back. I'm getting tired of trying to drag Reid out with me."


End file.
